Piastri's F1 dilemma: Why can he not secure a victory?

What a difference a year can make.

Rewind 12 months and Oscar Piastri held a 34-point lead over his McLaren teammate Lando Norris at the top of the driver standings and was a whopping 104 advantage over Max Verstappen.

Now, 12 races into 2026 with zero wins to his name, the Australian is sitting 7th in the standings, 55 points behind Norris and 138 off Kimi Antonelli at the top.

Another disappointing outing for Piastri saw him finish sixth at the Dutch Grand Prix, 32 seconds behind his teammate who claimed his second consecutive win of the season.

It is now almost a year to the day since Piastri's last race win.

So, what is going on?

“It didn’t help for sure,” Piastri said after last night’s race when asked if a slow McLaren pitstop impacted his race.

“Regardless of that pace, it just wasn’t particularly good.

“It was a struggle from that point on, really didn’t have enough pace.

“The first lap was good, well, after the red flag (Verstappen’s crash) was good, and then the first stint felt OK, and then after that I just had nothing.

“I don’t know why, but (there is) plenty to look into.”

Asked by Sky Sports what was missing, he added: “Pace – I don’t really have any more answers than that”.

Despite claiming victory at Zandvoort, Norris echoed his teammate’s sentiment that the car does not have enough pace to challenge for a championship.

The British driver and reigning world champions shared the podium with Antonelli and George Russell.

"I'm confident because we clearly have a strong car," he said. "We have a strong car in certain areas. It's not like last year where we were pretty good everywhere.

"We're very, very strong in high speed, and that's the place we've improved the car the most, is high-speed performance. No one matches us in high speed, and that's a good thing.

"My pace advantage to Mercedes in Turn Seven, Eight was crazy, but their advantage that they have to us in slow speed is also crazy.

"And therefore, I don't have the confidence to say, 'Yeah, I can easily fight for a championship for the rest of the season.'

"I know I've just won two races in a row and had two poles in a row, but at the minute I don't have the car I need to fight for a championship. And I know that's quite a big comment."